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Putting on a brace face

S
ometimes, dressing up is just a bit of fun. And sometimes, it’s a potent
symbol of the undefeated human spirit. For Arassari, it is the latter.

Arassari is a member of Brazil’s Pataxo tribe. The Pataxo homelands lie in a
river basin in Bahia province, and their story is a grim litany of genocide,
land grabs and subjugation. The jungles in which the hunter-gatherers once
thrived were razed for cocoa plantations in the 19th century.

The Pataxo fought back, and the white settlers used crude bioweapons such as
smallpox-infected clothing to suppress them.

In the 20th century cattle ranchers added to their sorrows, obtaining false title
to Pataxo lands from corrupt officials. Ranchers used hired thugs to
terrorise local tribespeople and, having denied them their hunting grounds,
then prevented them from travelling to towns to trade for food.